Apple has rolled out new Mail sorting features in iOS 18.2 for iPhone users, but this is said to be missing from the concurrent iPadOS 18.2 and macOS Sequoia 15.2 updates.
The latest iOS update introduces an automatic email categorization system, sorting messages into four distinct categories:
- Primary
- Transactions
- Updates
- Promotions
By the way, Gmail has been doing this for as long as I can remember.
This feature can help users better organize their inboxes, with devices supporting Apple Intelligence also keeping priority messages on the top. iPhone users can easily switch between the new categorized view and the traditional chronological list.
Despite the simultaneous release of software updates for iPad and Mac, these do not have this new Mail sorting thing. That means users of these devices are still limited to the standard chronological inbox layout.
Apple did not include a specific feature in their latest update, but it is becauseed because they had previously shown this feature working on macOS during their announcement of Apple Intelligence features in late October.
Mark Gurman from Bloomberg suggests that the limited rollout might be due to how resources for engineering are being allocated, not because of technical issues.
Apple usually plans to ensure that its core apps, like Mail, work the same way across all its devices.
As of now, Apple has not provided any timeline for when these new Mail features might be extended to other platforms.
More here.